JDHS runners head to regionals

Posted: Friday, September 26, 2008

By TRENT MAKELA

The Crimson Bears cross country teams will take to the track at the regional meet in Ketchikan on Saturday morning with a ticket to state already in their pockets, and complacency threatening to hold them back.

"We're already into state with Ketchikan being the only other team from our region this year," coach Guy Thibodeau said. "But we still need to get everybody in there and treating this meet like a state meet. We don't want to take a weekend off or it's hard to get your focus and legs back for the real deal."

JDHS will get Annika Ord back this week after illness forced her to sit out last Saturday's home meet. Freshman David Francis will not be making the trip, however. Francis also sat out with illness last weekend, and growing pains in his knees have combined with his time off to force him to sit out the rest of the season.

"I know David is really disapointed about not running and we're diasapointed that things worked out like they did. But he's got three more years left and we have to do what's best for him."

Senior Nick Waldo repeated his impressive time from last weekend in this week's time trials and will replace Francis on the roster.

"It'll be a pretty flat course - a reallly beautiful trail around the lake that's narrow with not many hills," Thibodeau said. "It's a good cross country challenge, and hopefully we get some good times."